chapter ii. the wicked king

Once upon a time, long before Nythelean Empire rose to power and The Citadel stood proudly at the heart of the city, nothing existed within the Land of Smotia but the endless spread of untouched fertile land surrounded by the untamed woodland and wild mountains.

Nobody has ever claimed this territory as theirs, yet the land seemed to prosper on its own, flourishing and thriving even without any human touch, with its distinctive beauty which later became its charm.

The land remained vacant for a really long time. The only people ever resided on the old Smotia were nomads and gypsies, travellers who made their temporary dwellings over the hills and valleys of Smotia to restore their strength between their long journeys, only to quickly leave the place once again when the change of season came around. There were also sightings of refugees and deserters—although rare—the people who were banished or exiled from their homes and made use of the wild forest to create their hidden sanctuaries.

Not many dared to venture into Smotia in the past, as the only way to enter the territory would be through the challenging route across Mount Orrum, with its deceiving mist and ice storms making the journey all the more taxing for the inexperienced ones. That was until King Aneas—then merely a young General and descendant of Royal blood from a fallen empire far away in the North—arrived at this place with his army and his people in the middle of a war between kingdoms.

Seeking refuge in the untamed territory, King Aneas used Mount Orrum as a protective shield against those who were pursuing him. Once they recuperated in their refuge, he drew his sword and led his army, claiming this territory not only as their safe haven but also as their new home, and they defended themselves when the enemies tried to break through the barrier to reach their refuge camp and challenge his claim.

There were stories written in the history books about how King Aneas claimed victory against his enemies, how he slain hundreds of his enemies' soldiers on the peak of Mount Orrum with his own two hands, and how he showed no mercy to those bearing threats against him, his people, and—once he ascended to become the new King—his throne. With his iron hands, he built his own empire in the new land, opening the gates to his new nation not only to his loyal followers and trusted men, but also to the people and nomads residing deep in the forest, as long as they were willing to accept him as their ruler. To those who denied him as the new reigning monarch, he accused them all with treason, before banishing them into the wilderness where they would no longer pose a threat to him.

Perhaps his own history was to blame for his current reputation, as the people continue to look up to him with fear instilled in them despite his accomplishments in giving the people of Smotia a prosperous life. But with the fact that he remains unchanging when it comes to his ruthless ways even in dealing with his people or any form of incoming threats against him, you cannot really blame the people for being so fearful of him to this day.

You can only wish that there could be a way to stop all the unsolicited rumours going around the kingdom about your father. But then again, not everyone has been lucky enough to be able to see the other side of him that he has never shown to anyone other than yourself.

"Is there something that you have in mind? You seem a bit quiet this morning."

Once the staff was done serving you with the breakfast meal and fresh tea, you are left alone in the dining room with the King. The room immediately falls into a complete stillness, until the moment His Majesty suddenly questions your silence. You haven't noticed that while your mind was wandering all over the place, you have been staring pointedly at the fresh toast in front of you without touching it. Something which obviously had caught the attention of the King.

Putting your cutleries down, you reach for the tea to help you gain some composure. "It's nothing, Father. My apologies for zoning out," you bashfully say to him, while your father seems slightly concerned as he tilts his head curiously at you.

"Have you not gotten a good sleep last night? You also look tired."

A giggle escapes your lips at his question, but you quickly hide it with a cough. "I'm sorry, Father. No, unfortunately, I didn't quite get a good sleep."

To be precise, you simply didn't get any chance to sleep at all. Between your late return, getting caught by your governess, to the early invitation that was sent to you by the King's order, there really was no time for you to lie down in bed and rest.

"It's quite unusual for you to have breakfast this early," you finally bring it up to your father, as you have been wondering about this since the moment Nanny Abigail let you know that he was expecting to see you this morning. "And to make it a private affair," you add, looking around at the empty dining room.

It is quite unusual for your father to send all the staff away during breakfast, and for him to not invite any of his trusted aides. As someone who is always busy with various matters regarding the kingdom and his people and with limited time to spare, King Aneas would often arrange for his advisors and his personal aides or royal ministers to join him in his mealtime to have their official meetings before starting the day. With the way Nanny Abigail mentioned about the official breakfast invitation, you had expected that there would be at least an advisor or any member of the royal cabinet sitting here as well, and that the King would be bringing up a few urgent matters to discuss with his loyal men.

Perhaps the same urgent news that had been brought up last night at the royal dinner.

To see that none of his men is present this morning, you begin to wonder why His Majesty had asked for you with such urgency. "Was there something important that you wished to discuss with me, Father? Something that you want to keep everyone else from learning, perhaps?"

Like that important matter which Advisor Kim kept advising you during dinner last night, for example, you wonder silently.

King Aneas responds with a soft chuckle. His smile is hidden under the thick beard which would usually intimidate people, but for some reason, gives the opposite effect to you, as you see nothing more but a wise and warm-hearted man underneath when he smiles. "You're quite perceptive," he says. "I was actually hoping that we could wait until you are done with your meal before we start discussing important matters. Had the discussion that we had last night bother you? I wondered if your silence meant that you are still quite upset after what the advisors had mentioned to you last night."

Sighing, you avoid his eyes when you answer with a murmur, "It wasn't so much about what they said, but about how you seemed to agree with them."

King Aneas leans back and starts rubbing his beard as he falls into a deep thought, as if he is recalling last night's event. Unlike him, who seems to remain so calm while thinking back to it, you feel the dread that you experienced coming back to you just as you remember the entire conversation which was shared at the table last night. There was the talk about the security breach happening on The Citadel recently, signs of rebellion rising among the common people living in the outskirts of Smotia, and the possible threat from a neighbouring kingdom which Nythelean has had years of a tense relationship with.

You remember listening to the discussion shared between the King and his advisors and ministers who had been present, trying to soak in all the information while learning how your father was handling such matters, until Advisor Kim proposed an idea to the table, one which he had believed would be able to solve all matters at once.

"You were actually right. I do have a purpose of requesting to meet you in private this morning before I would go meet with the advisors," King Aneas finally says to you. Propping his elbows on the dining table, the King looks at you pointedly and begins to slowly explain, "I know that last night's discussion had left you feeling—uncomfortable. What Advisor Kim and his colleagues suggested may sound ludicrous to you, but he wasn't completely unreasonable."

"But, Father—"

"Let me finish," King Aneas gently cuts you off. "And when I said at the table about putting the idea into consideration, it didn't mean that I agreed to put it in motion."

That admission completely shuts you up. You still feel bitter when you think about what was said. The dread that pushed you into arguing against the idea still remains in your thoughts, but hearing from your father directly that he was never thinking about accepting it and following it through feels quite reassuring.

Because what Advisor Kim suggested as a way to bring peace into Smotia did sound ludicrous, when he had proposed the idea of strengthening the newly formed alliance that Nythelean Empire recently had with a neighbouring kingdom by arranging a marriage bond between you and one of their princes. The advisor further claimed that this would ensure a sustainable alliance which would give more power and protection to Nythelean Empire through their never-ending support, using the marriage bond as some form of pledge of loyalty between the two kingdoms.

You have known about political marriages for years, to understand how it works and how well it would help in forming alliances between kingdoms and noble families. You hate to admit that the idea was quite brilliant, as Nythelean itself is a much smaller and younger kingdom compared to others that had been established long before your father took his throne. But as someone who has been confined and sheltered inside this palace for the entirety of your lifetime, being tied in a political marriage would just be another form of confinement. One that you wish to never be entangled with.

"Since you did fight against it the first time the idea was brought up, I spent the entire night wondering if there would be another way to solve our problems without having to force you into getting involved in such an arrangement," King Aneas calmly continues, surprising you that he actually had taken your opinion into consideration instead of bluntly accepting the idea. As someone who had placed the importance of his throne above all else, you had expected that you would be just another small element of his life that he could sacrifice and use for his own benefit. You have never been more relieved to find how wrong you were.

"But before we can decide our next move and find a better idea that doesn't involve marrying you off to someone you know nothing about, we do need to consider about the recent security breach."

You simply cannot agree more. From all the years you have lived within the palace, this was the first time you have ever heard about a breach on the walls of The Citadel. No one has ever posed a threat directly to the palace before, but when there are reports of suspicious parties trying to slip through the guards and infiltrate the palace's walls, you can understand that it wouldn't be taken so lightly by His Majesty's loyal men.

"I suppose we can try to handle that issue first before anything else," you offer, feeling like perhaps you can be of use to your father if you can help him solve this, only for him to disregard you by adding,

"That is why I thought it would be best if you are not to remain at the palace while all this tension is being thrown our way."

You stop and stare at your father for a moment, not sure if you had heard him right. "You mean I am to leave the palace?" you question him once you realised what he had meant. Out of all the options that he could ever think of, this one was unexpected. Though perhaps you shouldn't be too surprised that he would consider this.

"This is all so sudden." But still sounds like a better idea, regardless.

Suddenly, you start feeling hopeful rather than anxious about this news. Your thoughts are immediately drawn back to the place that you have secretly desired to come back to. Your old home. Where you would return to the garden that your mother had built, to see all the beautiful things that you can only vaguely remember and the places you spent living together in with your mother. You are also hopeful to be reunited with the people who would know more about your mother as they had chosen to remain there after you and your mother had been taken away, that perhaps you can finally regain some of the fading memories of your mother and talk about her more when you have been unable to do so with your grieving father.

"I assume you are sending me to the summer palace until everything settles down," you say to him, keeping the excitement in your voice as subtle as you can so he would not notice it.

King Aneas, who is in deep thought when you speak of this, raises his eyebrows. "No, I'm not talking about sending you off to the Seacrest Manor. If our suspicions are true, and there truly are some enemies' spies working among the people residing within the palace, then the summer palace should be the last place you are to be sent off to."

Hearing this, it finally makes sense to you why your father had chosen to send everybody else away to discuss this matter, allowing you to have enough privacy to speak and keeping this information from falling to the wrong hands.

"Then—where are you going to send me off to?"

King Aneas has a grim look on his face, a flicker of doubt appears in his eyes just before he answers you, "There is a property which belongs to our family that would be the best option for keeping you safe, as only limited people have known about this place. Not even the royal ministers."

You cannot say that you are surprised to hear that your father would have a place ready for you. As the ruler of the empire, it shouldn't be too surprising that the King would own many different estates and properties spread all over the empire's territory. The long list of his known properties begin to run through your thoughts. You start thinking of any other places than the Seacrest Manor which he would choose to be your sanctuary.

"Where is this place then, Father?" you question him when you are running empty of options, unable to think of a place which the royal ministers and his advisors would have no knowledge of.

"It is a place called the Stargrave Castle," your father implicitly says. As if he can sense your confusion, being quite unfamiliar with the name, he continues to explain, "You may have never heard of it. Nobody within this palace who are connected to the place ever truly had, and no one has seen it except for some of my trusted acolytes. It is located quite far from here, so it should be perfect as the place for you to take cover for a little while. To reach it, you would have to cross the Elcester Forest, another reason why it would be hard for people to get to you."

A property beyond the forest?

Now he definitely has gotten your attention. The entire time you were discussing this matter, you have been feeling uneasy, not knowing what to expect under the current situation. But now you feel more curious than ever, intrigued by the fact that you can finally get a chance to venture through the forest that has enthralled you, to find that something actually does exist beyond those trees.

"Will I be going there with you, Father?"

Oblivious to your sudden change of mood, the King calmly returns to his meal as he answers you. "No, I'm afraid you will have to travel on your own. A horse carriage is being prepared to take you from The Citadel by nightfall. You are free to choose one of your lady-in-waiting to join you on this journey, but make sure that both of you would be prepared to leave whenever the carriage is ready. I will be there to foresee your departure myself to make sure that the guards and the driver will be accountable for your safe return."

Surprised to hear that he had everything organised already, you begin to wonder if he had thought of this plan before it was ever brought up that you were to be involved in the empire's matters. But you keep your thoughts to yourself. "Of course, Father," you simply say, choosing not to dwell on it further.

Once the discussion has ended, the rest of the breakfast falls into a more relaxed affair. The conversation simply flows into daily matters and catching up with your daily duties, with the King continues evading any kind of talks regarding the current issues and updates on politics. You don't fail to notice how uncharacteristically gentle he was being when talking about sending you away, but rigid and tense once he begins talking about any mundane things. But none of his demeanour causes you alarm, until the moment when he suddenly stops talking mid-conversation and starts staring at you deeply.

"Why are you not wearing your mother's necklace? I told you to keep it with you at all times. You didn't lose it, did you?"

You reach up to your neck and lightly gasp. The necklace that he mentioned has always been with you, worn even in your sleep. But you had completely forgotten that you had taken it off last night before leaving the palace, worrying that wearing the fancy necklace would have drawn too much attention when you decided to visit the center of the town. In your hurry to leave your bedchamber this morning, it simply slipped through your thoughts to put it back on. Which is quite funny when you didn't forget to carry the golden dagger with you instead.

"Oh no, I must've forgotten to put it back on after my morning bath. I'll put it on again before I begin the day's lessons with the governess."

King Aneas looks at you with displeasure, making your heart sink. Because you hate having to disappoint more than one people in one day with your actions. "Don't go anywhere without it. Make sure you put it on as soon as possible and not to take it off again later when you leave your chambers. Even if you are to remain in the palace."

Your father sounds stern as he says this, and for some reason, it worries you to see that the absence of the necklace seems to rattle him and you start to wonder the reason why it would matter so much to him. You have questioned this a long time ago, back when he first gave you the necklace and made you promise to always keep it with you and wear it wherever you go, but you had never dared to voice those concerns to him out loud.

"Yes, Father. I'll be sure to wear it again, I promise," is the only thing that you can say to him in the end, when you still find no courage to question him. King Aneas simply responds with a nod, though it is quite obvious that he isn't reassured with your promise just yet.

The room feels a bit tense afterward, until His Majesty finally reminds you that you are to prepare for today's tutoring, officially relieving you from your duty of accompanying him this morning. The King sends a signal for the staff to return to the dining room when you are ready to leave. But just before you walk out the door, you turn to your father again one last time to question him.

"Father?"

King Aneas blinks, looking a bit startled to hear your voice, as if he thought that you would no longer be in the room. "Yes, Princess?"

Just as you eyes meet each other, a heavy feeling of uneasiness begins to appear in your gut, telling you that something is going to happen. And that it might not be a good thing. "Everything is going to okay, isn't it?"

Your father falls silent for the briefest moment before answering, quite unreassuringly, "Everything will be okay, Princess. It has to be."

As you walk across the main palace and make your way back to the Pavilion, with the same two guards from earlier following you close behind, you can feel that uneasiness following you. You begin to wonder if things truly are getting serious, and that the situation is actually more dire than what everyone has made it to be. Looking out the window, you keep your eyes on the palace's outer landscape and start thinking about your life in the palace.

You may not have felt a lot of comfort living in the palace, never once had you ever considered it as your home the same way you had seen the Seacrest Manor that was filled with your childhood memories, but it doesn't stop you from feeling anxious about leaving this place. You should have felt excited about finally getting out of the palace, the place where you have felt confined your whole life, restricted from the world around you. And yet, instead of embracing a new sense of freedom, the only thing you are feeling now is dread.

Dread for the sudden change without being able to see the future, and an uneasiness for leaving behind a familiar place. But despite your apprehension, you couldn't find it in you to dispute His Majesty's insistent of sending you away. Not only because you knew that this was a necessary measure to protect you from harm's way, but also because you could see it written all over his face and the way he brought up about sending you away. It was obvious that his decision was final and there was nothing that you could do to change his mind about it.

Not when the only other option was for either you or your father to be willing to take on Advisor's Kim suggestion to use you as an instrument in the empire's political trade.

After losing your mother, your father has become quite stern and uncompromising when it comes to keeping you safe. It had led him into always making all these odd requests and the most peculiar decisions when it comes to your well-being. From insisting that you would remain inside the palace even when you are to prepare yourself for the throne, forbidding you to walk out of the gates of The Citadel unless you were to join him in dealing with the empire's affairs, to only allowing Nanny Abigail to personally choose your lady-in-waiting once you were ready to take on some of the palace's duties under the King's guidance.

But it was during your debutante ball when you finally understood to what extent His Majesty would go to when it comes to ensuring your safety, even if it meant hiding you forever from the world.

Being secluded in the palace your whole life, you had many expectations for your coming of age ceremony and the celebration of the next stage of your life where you were to have your public debut in the society. Yet once the faithful night finally came, you found that the only guests invited to the luxurious ball that the King had arranged for you were none other than his own loyal confidants and their families, close friends of the royal family, and the tight-knit noble families who had been His Majesty's biggest supporters and the most influential people within the empire. That the people who had come as your guests were only the same people who had always known about your existence in the palace, with not a sight of special guests invited from neighbouring kingdoms or far way countries. Even then, it was also required of you to wear a masquerade mask which matched your stunning dress, with His Majesty instructing you to keep it on you for the rest of the ball.

That night, you felt as if you were Nythelean Empire's best kept secret.

Surprisingly, a part of you had partly expected this to happen, even though it was supposed to be your biggest night. The Citadel has always seemed to be a place that holds a lot of secrets, and you have always felt like you were just a small part of it.

Sometimes, whenever you would come face to face with your father, you cannot help but wonder if things would be the same as they are today if your mother is still around. While His Majesty never specifically talks about your mother, you can sometimes see that her absence has put a heavy weight on him, no matter how hard he tries to hide it.

You have also wondered if his insistence on you wearing your mother's necklace at all time has anything to do with the fact that he is still clinging on your mother's shadows. But again, you have never dared to question it.

You reach up to touch your bare neck, feeling incomplete without the necklace. Having worn the piece of jewellery for a long time, it almost feels like it has become a part of you. Every time you feel lost, just like you are now, you would always find yourself reaching for it, finding comfort just by touching it with the tip of your fingers as if you can feel your mother's warmth consoling you.

It pains you to think that your mother's existence seems to be fading so rapidly, with only little memories of her that you have left. Passing the garden once again on your way, another piece of a broken memory returns. You are suddenly reminded of the last night you shared with her, the last time you ever held her hands, before she was gone the next day.

"My beautiful lily flower. Be good while I'm gone. Always listen to your father and do as he says."

While the memory is yet again faint, but you can sense that there was something odd about her when she said this. As if she was breaking apart, afraid, and the younger image of you shared her desperation when you spoke to her. "Where are you going? Can I come?"

"My time here is done. You'll have to stay with your father. Remember what I told you. We will see each other again."

"When?"

You don't remember ever getting an answer to your question, as your father entered the dark room where your mother was lying sickly in just then, only to pull you away. "It's time to go, Princess. Let your mother rest."

You remember looking back as your father gently took you away, to have one last good look at your poor mother while she was lying on her bed, watching you with tears in her eyes. The next day, she was no longer there when you tried to see her again. It was almost as if she simply vanished, with no trace of her left in the palace except for the necklace that was given to you and a painting of her that is still being kept away in your father's chamber, only for him to look at.

Odd thoughts always come to you whenever you recall these faint memories. Like the missing noblewoman who had ended up becoming a part of the dark tale that people would always talk about.

You almost laugh at yourself when you remember hearing those rumours for the first time and getting curious. So curious that you slipped away from the library after tutoring hours ended and spent the day running around the palace to look for any secret dungeon that your father may have hidden from you, only to find that none of them existed wherever you looked. Though it has never stopped you from wondering about it when you kept hearing all the rumours.

"He took the woman that he had chosen to be his wife into his estate, and she was never to be seen again."

Perhaps, there was some truth about the part of the tale that the people of Smotia has believed for years, after all. As much as you would like to deny it, it really does feel like there is a silver lining between all the rumours and how the people looks at your father.

The Wicked King who owns a palace with a lot of secrets, a wife who mysteriously passed and was gone without a trace, and the daughter who is kept imprisoned within the walls of her own home.

Perhaps the people has been right. Maybe your father does have something to do with this Bluebeard fellow, after all.

In the bustling daylight, places like The Rare Roots would usually be vacant, as most of them would only open their doors to their customers once the sky has grown dark. But as a pub that also offers rented rooms for local workers and travellers, The Rare Roots is often available in the day with a full buffet served for breakfast and lunch meal for the hardworking locals.

Usually, in the day, the pub would be handled by the pub keeper's wife, who also works as the main cook. Yet the moment Yoongi arrives with his men, Sir Elias, the owner of the pub himself is the one to welcome him. Standing at the door, the old man keeps his strong arms crossed over his chest as he looks at the mercenary army men before him with a disdain look.

"Are you lads here for the drunk hosers?" Elias greets them with a deep vice lathered with a thick accent, a grim smile is peeking from under his thick beard when he speaks. Seems like he knows who is in charge, when he keeps his eyes on Yoongi once he recognises the insignia on Yoongi's upper arms.

With a polite nod, Yoongi greets the man in return. From the time that he has spent in Smotia, Yoongi has come to learn how well respected Sir Elias is among the common people. Not only for being one of the town's own highly regarded businessperson, but also a respected elder figure who had been involved in the initial establishment of the town.

"Forgive us for bothering you so early in the day. I received news that two of my men were here last night and failed to return. We're here to take them out of your hands for the day."

Elias nods. "They're at the back, right outside of the barn where their horses are tied in. I offered them a room upstairs, but they insisted riding their horses to go back. Didn't even make it cross the barn's door before they fainted, seems like," he scoffs and chuckles, as if Yoongi's men had served him quite an entertainment with their unhandy behaviours. "Don't worry, my wife already tended the horses for you after she found those blokes completely passed out back there this morning. We figured it would be better for you to come fetch your own boys rather than us sending them back to your camp."

Yoongi smiles at the man. "I appreciate that you alerted us about them. I truly apologise for the inconvenience. Allow me to return the favour—"

Elias waves his hand. "You can pay me back by taking them away. Don't want them scaring off other customers."

The pub keeper leads Yoongi and his men to the back, where the barn is placed. Just as how Elias described them, Yoongi immediately finds Sergeant Jang and Hadi lying helplessly on top of a pile of hays right in front of the barn. A grey-haired lady wearing an apron—most likely Elias's wife—is standing close by with one of her hands holding the reins to the men's horses. She appears relieved to see the men coming with her husband. She hands the horses' reins to Yoongi's aide while shaking her head like a disappointed mother, before joining her husband as he walks back to the pub, where the sound of customers eating their brunch can be heard.

"Should we wake them, Captain?" Ansen questions with a lowered voice as he and the others stand to watch their drunken comrades.

Yoongi stares at the sleeping men for a moment and sighs. "Load them up to the carriage. We can guide the horses with us home to camp. We'll wake them up once we're back at the camp to avoid anymore trouble."

"Yes, Captain."

"Fuck! Oy, what the hell—"

Hadi's scream, joined by Sergeant Jang's loud gasp, echoes through the camp of the mercenary men as two buckets of iced water are tossed right over them. The younger soldier blinks his eyes rapidly, shocked by the cold and groans when the headache hits. But it takes only a second for him to notice Min Yoongi who is standing tall before him, and he immediately stops squirming. Right beside the Captain are two other soldiers from his rank, both of them holding up empty buckets each while laughing at him.

"Good morning, Patriot. Got yourself enough beauty sleep, have you?" Yoongi greets him, while Hadi tries to lift himself up to stand guard, only to keep swaying and slipping back down. "Take your time to recover. Go back to your tent and freshen up before reporting for duty."

"Yes, Captain! Sir! I-I'm sorry..."

Yoongi sighs as he lets the boy go, then turns to the other man. "Sergeant Jang, follow me to my tent."

Groaning in pain, the Sergeant rises to his feet. With his hand holding his throbbing head, he drags his feet to follow Yoongi who is walking a bit too fast to his liking towards the Commander's tent at the far end of the camp.

Yoongi doesn't bother to look at the other man once they are alone, proceeding to toss a clean towel at his subordinate before reaching for the pot on his desk to pour both of them some fresh-made coffee. "You can quit the act now that nobody is around to see you. We both know that the liquor that humans made in this realm does nothing to our bodies."

Sergeant Jang chuckles and immediately drops his act as a drunken man. Using the towel that Yoongi gave him, he rubs his hair and face dry and then drops himself on a nearby couch. "You're no fun," he says, still with a chuckle. He starts stretching his back, loosening all the knots formed on his shoulders that he got from sleeping on hays all night. "I had to act if I didn't want to draw any suspicions. I think I drank just as much as that boy did, so it would have drawn a lot of questions if I didn't seem any bit of getting as intoxicated with all that alcohol getting into my system."

Scoffing, Yoongi hands him a cup of coffee before joining him on the couch. "Did you manage to handle everything I asked of you, then? How did you end up in the business district, anyway? I thought I sent you two to the capital to meet with Brook."

Sergeant Jang grimaces after taking the first sip of coffee and makes a comment comparing human-made coffee to sewer water. But he quickly recovers once he realises that Yoongi is watching him closely. "We did go there, but the guy you sent us to wasn't home. We asked around and followed his movements until we caught up with him outside the district," he finally explains and rests back on the couch. "Once we were done with him, we strolled down the district to look around and came past the pub. Hadi started bragging about the local beer just then, saying that the pub keeper brews his own beer that you won't be able to find anywhere else but in Smotia. Figured I might as well have a taste while I was there and gave the horses some break after going around town with us."

Hearing this, Yoongi falls silent. He had expected that both of them would have had some time strolling down the business district before ending up spending time at the pub. After wasting all morning trying to gather information from the men he sent looking through the town all night only to find nothing, he begins to feel some semblance of hope knowing that his friend—someone who is like him, and not a regular human—had a chance to go through the district where the flow of energy was coming from.

"Did you see anything suspicious while you were there? Found anything strange or out of place?" Yoongi questions him, which draws Sergeant Jang's interest when he notices the expression that Yoongi is showing him.

"What do you mean?"

Sighing, Yoongi puts his cup away and leans closer. With a lowered voice, he begins to share with his Sergeant-in-disguise everything that happened after the man left their camp last night. About the flow of energy that he sensed moving in the streets, with an obvious trace that seemed to be coming from the center of the business district, and how he had sent men to search through town to figure out if something was happening. Aside from all the reports about the town's preparation to welcome Lemmus Rising, there had been no promising result that he gained from the tired men.

"Flow of mana, huh?" Sergeant Jang mutters, thinking deeply. "If it really was as powerful as what you described, then," —he stops for a moment and shakes his head. "No, I didn't feel anything that was as striking as that mana you felt."

Yoongi falls back in his seat, and to Sergeant Jang's surprised, the man looks crestfallen. It makes him curious, but he is quickly reminded of something else about his time at the pub which had drawn his curiosity, something that he feels would interest Yoongi if he should hear about it.

"But—what if I tell you that I may have found something better?" he says, almost goading at Yoongi to draw his curiosity. Though he doesn't continue until Yoongi appears more interested to hear what he has to say. "Guess who came into the pub last night for drinks?"

"What do you mean? Who did you see?"

Seeing that he has managed to draw Yoongi's attention, he simply grins and takes his time to answer. Holding the cup of coffee in his hands, the fake Sergeant blows at the drink gently, expelling a flow of mana into his coffee until the colour changes and a delightful aroma of coffee comes wafting in the air. He takes a sip, looking pleased with his 'work' as he hums, "Ah, that's more like it."

Realising what his friend is doing, Yoongi can only shake his head. "Yijeong—"

Hearing his name, Yijeong merely grins. He enjoys teasing Yoongi only a bit more before finally placing his cup away. "There was a lone traveller who claimed to have just arrived and was passing through town. She was dressed in an old worn-out cloak and looked nothing like a local, but seemed a bit too clean and fresh as someone who claimed to have been spending her time on the road."

Yoongi raises his brows. "A female traveller? Did you recognise who she was?"

"No, I didn't," Yijeong says, sounding unsure. But then his eyes grow dark, right before he continues with a lowered voice. "But her looks—I feel like her face resembles someone. A person who was quite familiar to both of us, though I doubted myself when I couldn't sense anything coming from her even when she was making a short conversation with us."

This draws Yoongi's curiosity even further that he leans closer. "She wasn't one of us?"

"I might be wrong, but—seems like the cloak she was wearing wasn't the only thing shielding her."

It doesn't take much for Yoongi to understand what he is trying to tell him. "A spell."

"Again, I'm not quite sure. I was supposed to be drunk, remember?" Yijeong says, shrugging, but he still has this faraway look in his eyes, as he continues to recall the short encounter that he had with you at the pub last night. "There was something odd about it though. It felt like the spell was incomplete. I'm sure if it had been, we probably wouldn't have noticed at all that she was there. Especially the local men. Even I couldn't sense her when she was sitting right at the next table. It wasn't until she caught Hadi's attention when I finally realised that there was someone sitting on that table. I could've sworn it was empty the whole time, since I couldn't sense anything coming from her side until she started talking to us."

Yoongi nods. "Like she was invisible."

"And at the same time, impenetrable," Yijeong adds, while looking straight into Yoongi's eyes. "Like the invisible walls around The Citadel that we couldn't get through."

Yoongi closes his eyes the moment he is reminded of The Citadel, as he quickly remembers what had just happened recently. After many failed attempts of entering The Citadel, Yoongi and a small group of men—everyone who was disguising as part of the mercenary army like he, Ansen, and Yijeong all were—made another attempt just a few nights ago. This time, he managed to find someone who was able to create a counter spell, a refuge from his home realm who has been posing as a local business owner in the city. But all of the hope that he had with him vanished when the counter spell failed to work, sending him and his men falling backwards a distance away after nearly achieving his goal of exposing the secrets hidden behind those magic walls.

"You said something about the way she looked," Yoongi inquires while shaking the memory away, though it seems that Yijeong hasn't noticed his dismay when the man continues his story.

"Ah, yes. I didn't quite get a good look at her face at first since the pub was so dark during the night. That pub keeper, Elias, is a bit cheap when it comes to making his pub pleasant for his patrons," Yijeong bitterly says. But then he recalls meeting your gaze, and remembers how you managed to easily see through his facade and saw who he truly was. "But we exchanged glances one time, and I could tell that she was able to see through my disguise for that brief moment. That was also when I caught a glimpse of her face, just the part that her cloak and the shadows from the pub couldn't cover."

He stops for a moment, looking uneasy to continue. "Maybe you would've been able to recognise her if it had been you who was there to meet her. Her eyes, her smile, and the way she spoke—" Once again, Yijeong seems to be lost in his memory, while sounding doubtful and confused at the same time. "I can tell you, even if I'm not entirely confident with this, that she resembles awfully well to the missing Queen."

"Do you mean—"

Yijeong presses his lips together. "I might be wrong, though. Like I said, the pub was awfully dark," he says, as if he is worried of raising Yoongi's expectations if he should continue.

"Both the subtle flow of energy coming from around her and the way she looked—she reminded me of the Queen," he finally says, and he can almost hear Yoongi's heartbeat picking up before he adds, "I'm talking about Her Majesty, Queen Milena. The Wicked King's missing wife."